Monday, May 20, 2013

Waco/Dallas Mavens' Group Quilt

Five of us Mavens from Texas are going to make a group quilt! We had decided earlier than we wanted to make what has come to be called a "slice quilt." Four of us met yesterday at my house to plan our project. We all brought photos of potential quilt subjects. For one reason or another, however, we rejected all of those photos, and we've decided to do a totally imaginary, whimsical, quilt similar to one that appeared in the February/March 2013 issue of Quilting Arts (pp. 16-20).

The rejects on the dining room table!

We cut drawing paper into 12"x24" sections and taped these together along the long edges. We spread this out on my kitchen island and began sketching in the horizon line, a road or path, a green belt, and a "water feature" along the bottom. The area between the horizon line and the path is the largest section, and it might contain houses, trees, flowers, animals, or whatever strikes our fancy.

Rita, Alice, and Carolyn working on the sketch.

Rita and Carolyn, with Judy advising, continue the sketch.

All of us, with Janet also participating, will independently construct our section. Undoubtedly the skies will all be different shades of blue! Different colors will also appear for the road, the green belt, and the water. But we felt that different shades and hues will make the quilt all the more charming and whimsical.

We have a generously far-away deadline--the end of October. We plan to take our "slices" to the Houston Quilt Festival and will show them to our fellow Mavens who plan to be there next fall. No, we won't have time to ENTER it in this show, but our completion deadline is in October so that we can make decisions about the placement of the sleeves, as well as what potential shows in 2014 we might plan to enter!

Rita, Carolyn, and Alice make notes on the back of our
"slices" about various decisions we made.

Well, so far it is sounding as if we are going to have quite a contingent in Houston! I know that Andrea and Nedra are going, plus us Texans! As the time draws nearer, we can make plans to all meet up somewhere and maybe have dinner together and some "photo ops!! Kathy is going as well...oh, so many, and this will be such a great chance to put names and faces together!

Those photos are terrific and the idea you settled on is perfect, I believe. What fun you will have. This can be done with family photos and grandchildren I would think...not only in fabric but paint on paper.Can't wait to see it.

Sounds like a great project and you sure look like you we're having fun working on it together. I will certainly be at Festival this year (best part of living in the Houston Metro) and I am not signing up for evening classes!

Hurrah for you, Sara! That means that THIS year you'll be able to meet us for dinner. There's likely to be quite a group of Mavens! I'm really excited about this and want to get right to work on it, but Cell calls me first!

Some Super Websites!

The Material Mavens

We are a group of art quilters who come from various parts of the United States, from the East coast and then south to Arkansas and Texas. We were inspired by the original Twelve by Twelve international art quilting group.

Beginning in September, 2011, we started posting our 12"x 12" art quilts, which were based on themes chosen in turn by our members. For Round One, we posted quilts every two months, always on the 15th of the designated months.

Round Two of The Material Mavens began in October, 2014. Some changes were made: quilts were posted every three months, and the quilts could be be either 12"x 12" or rectangular ones measuring 11" x 14", either horizontal or vertical in orientation.

Round Three of The Material Mavens will begin in July, 2018. Again, changes have been made. Now those members who wish to stay affiliated with the group are free to post quilts every time or every now and then. Two, our blog administrator collected suggested themes from the members who wanted to remain affiliated. These themes were then pulled at random from a "hat," and they were then assigned in order for the posting dates. Since we had 13 members who wanted to remain, we will be posting quilts every 3 months until 2021! This date is significant and appropriate, because 2021 will be the 10th year that our group has been in existence.